


christmas competitions

by silverkatana



Category: H.O.T. (Band), SECHSKIES (Band)
Genre: Crack, M/M, Merry Christmas, mistletoe kisses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 06:48:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17137004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverkatana/pseuds/silverkatana
Summary: tony and jaeduck get a little drunk and a little competitive over christmas decorating.





	christmas competitions

“Jaeduck-ah, should we set up a tree for Christmas?” Seungho asks, nine at night two Saturday’s before Christmas when they’re seated at their home bar enjoying some alcohol, languid sips and easy conversations and a couple of chips on the side turning into a couple dozen.

 

Jaeduck hesitates, trailing his eyes over the spaces in the living room where the tree would probably go - perhaps a small one with those bright fairy lights and everything would be pretty cute in the corner by the sofa, but then again… He wrinkles his nose, “Too boring.”

 

“Hey,” Seungho defends immediately, almost as if he were offended on behalf of the tree (Jaeduck can’t tell if he’s tipsy or just has a strong attachment to Christmas trees), “Trees are  _ traditional. _ And they’re pretty, not boring.”

 

He doesn’t really know if it’s too much alcohol that’s fogging his brain and bringing out his competitive streak, or if it’s just his playful nature deciding to show itself at that very moment, but one way or another a smirk dances across his features and he says whimsically, tone dripping with mischief, “Hyung, let’s make this a competition.”

 

Seungho stares at him in confusion for what feels like a good five minutes, and then: “Wait, what? No, no, no, the house is going to be a  _ mess _ and we’re already terrible even working together, competing would be a bad idea, let’s not do this.”

 

“Why? It’ll be fun,” he protests, eyes alight at the idea of a Christmas spent with intricate designs strewn across the house, blinking lights and mistletoe and oversized stockings to make the festive mood ever-present. Contrary to Seungho’s beliefs, a lone tree and a string of fairy lights can’t cut it - it’s not fun enough, it’s not festive enough, it’s not…  _ Christmas _ enough. Even if it is tradition.

 

Seungho gives in eventually, either beginning to see the fun in his proposal or too lazy to argue any further. “Fine,” he mutters, finishing the last few sips of his alcohol and licking the salt of the chips off his fingers, “But I’m still putting up the tree.”

 

Jaeduck laughs, carrying the wine glasses to the kitchen to place them in the sink before disposing of the empty potato chip packets. “Just watch, my decorations will be better than yours,” he calls over his shoulder, hearing a resounding ‘in your dreams!’ as a response.

 

He can already imagine the various stages of Christmas decorating that the house would have to go through - from relatively neat with a few stray decorations here and there, to a full-blown mess with everything in the wrong places, and in the end it would turn out to be the best that their house has ever looked during Christmas. Hopefully.

 

There’s the seventy-percent chance that it  _ won’t _ turn out the way he envisions it will in his head, and that seventy-five percent also suggests that the house will just end up being a complete and utter mess when the 25th comes.

 

_ Only time will tell _ , he thinks dismissively, brushing the somewhat concerning images of a very, very messy house away,  _ We’ll see how it goes. _

  
  
  
  


He awakens the next day to see faint rays of light peeking out from under his door; must be Seungho in the living room or the kitchen.

 

His first thought is  _ oh shit, how much did I oversleep for Seungho-hyung to be awake and out of his room before me? _

 

Jaeduck grabs at his phone quickly, expecting the screen to show something like 1pm, but instead the numbers in white - 9:42 - shine back at him and he stares at it blankly for a few seconds trying to process the information.

 

His second thought is  _ why on earth is Seungho-hyung awake before 10 in the morning on a day where he doesn’t have schedules? _

 

He cracks the door open tentatively, faint tendrils of apprehension already crawling into his heart at the odd start to the morning, and aside from Alexanduck running into him the first thing he notices is the distinctive smell of… is that  _ pine _ ?

 

Seungho greets him in a muffled tone without taking his attention off whatever he’s working on when Jaeduck walks into the living room cautiously, peeking around the corner to see what he’s doing awake earlier than usual. 

 

His third thought is  _ wow, Seungho-hyung really is dedicated to Christmas trees. _

 

“You’re starting  _ now _ ?” he queries, unable to hide the disbelief that filters into his words, “You… woke up early for this?”

 

“... No, Edworld was running around in my room and I woke up,” Seungho admits as he finally looks up from the miniature Christmas tree he’s attempting to set up in the corner of the room, “This is a little more difficult than I anticipated though.”

 

Jaeduck cracks a smile as Seungho steps back and stares at the tree with furrowed eyebrows, the branches sticking out at odd places. It soon transcends into full-blown laughter when the older of the two reaches for the cluster of fairy lights they’ve kept in a black bag since the past Christmas celebration and almost shrieks in dismay at the way the lights are impossibly tangled.

 

“Have fun,” he snickers, “Time for me to set up my own decorations.”

 

And then he promptly realises he  _ doesn’t _ have the decorations he has in mind in the house, since every year that they celebrate Christmas at home they’ve mostly just settled for putting up the tree - hence,  _ boring _ \- and really, they could never be bothered to put in any more effort than that. He doesn’t really know why he suggested the competition because now they have to put in a whole lot more effort, but neither of them has many schedules at this time of the year, so might as well; it will be fun, right?

 

(In hindsight, perhaps they should have stuck to the tree.)

 

He runs out after washing up and getting dressed to find a shop selling Christmas decorations - he finds one quickly enough, thanking the power of the Internet, and enters to find it relatively empty. Not many people go shopping for Christmas decorations in the morning two weeks away from Christmas, after all.

 

Cheerfully colourful strings of lights are added to the shopping basket first, then a pair of large red-and-white stockings with reindeer patterns on it that he finds absolutely adorable, and then a sprig of mistletoe because, well, Christmas and mistletoes, even though he’s never seen any acquaintance of his actually  _ have _ mistletoe in their house during Christmas; and then because he’s feeling especially generous that day, he decides to buy tree ball ornaments for Seungho in red and gold since they don’t have anything other than fairy lights at home. 

 

The store owner raises an eyebrow at the amount of Christmas decorations being purchased but scans the items and begins to pack them into a bag without a word after Jaeduck places them on the counter - Jaeduck hopes the store owner doesn’t recognise him, or at least doesn’t know him well, lest he’s questioned as to why he’s buying a mistletoe for the house when it’s tradition to kiss under it and the only one he lives with is Seungho.

 

And then he places the mistletoe into a plastic bag and his left eyebrow raises a little higher, and Jaeduck finds it difficult to look him in the eye as he hands over payment and takes the bags.

 

_ Yup, he definitely knows who I am. _

 

Really, how hard is it to believe that he’s buying mistletoe simply because mistletoe would be a good decoration in his house?

 

Jaeduck awkwardly thanks the shopkeeper, already seeing the questioning gaze that he’s trying to hide, and cringes as he walks out of the store, already resigned to his fate. Hopefully the shopkeeper isn’t the type to tell anyone things, or he’d have to deal with many,  _ many _ questions from fans, as well as probably his whole phone screen filled with notifications from Jiwon just laughing at him and Jaijin calling him a traitor. 

 

Oh no no  _ no _ he can’t have that, even if situations like these have already happened multiple times. As he walks, he can already hear Jaijin’s voice ringing in his head clearer than his own thoughts.

 

He backtracks as smoothly as possible, halting stiffly in front of the shopkeeper who stares at him with a puzzled look. “Hi,” he attempts to say as casually as he can, “By the way, could you not mention this purchase to anyone? Thanks.” With a rushed last word, he quickens his pace and hurries his way out of the store without looking back, ignoring the few customers in the store who recognise him and whisper to one another.

 

_ Oh, great,  _ he reflects as he makes his way back home,  _ Requesting that probably made me seem even weirder. _

 

Nevertheless, he makes it home with the decorations to find Seungho looking proudly at his tree, branches properly arranged. How is it that he has been living with Seungho for so long and yet is only realising his odd obsession with the Christmas tree now? How many Christmases have passed with the tree set up without him noticing? He continues watching as Seungho begins to wind the fairy lights around the tree with a tenderness that makes it seem as though he were tending to his own child.

 

_ Seungho-hyung is weirdly devoted to the tree,  _ Jaeduck notes absentmindedly as he places down the bags and begins to get to work setting up his own decorations. It’s more challenging than he expects to find appropriate spots to place the decor, especially with Alexanduck and Edworld constantly trying to nip at the mistletoe and Seungho protesting against the positioning of the stockings.

 

Eventually, he manages to win over Seungho with a “I’m letting you do what you want to the tree!”, and apparently Seungho prizes his tree more than deciding how the rest of the house should look for Christmas, because he immediately falls silent and lets Jaeduck carry on with his decorations while he continues winding the lights around the tree. As for the dogs, Jaeduck just ends up carrying the bags of decorations with him as he wanders around the house looking for good spots.

 

“Hyung,” he yells, striding back into the living room after hanging up the stockings, “I bought ornaments for the tree.” 

 

Seungho is gazing (proudly?) at the tree with the lights shining brightly, and turns his vision upon the red and gold ball ornaments that Jaeduck holds out.

 

There’s a brief moment of silence, and Jaeduck almost wonders if Seungho is going to cry out and thank him profusely for helping him to beautify his apparently very precious Christmas tree, then, “No. My tree is perfect the way it is.”

 

Jaeduck turns to look at the tree. He has no idea why Seungho treasures it so dearly. It stands in the corner looking, as unapologetically as a tree can look, just like every other store-bought miniature Christmas tree, save the fancy lights and all.

 

“No, it’ll look better with these,” he insists as he pushes the ornaments into Seungho’s hands, “Trust me.”

 

Seungho decides not to trust his judgement, refusing the ornaments and going back to carefully arranging the branches of the tree.

 

“Hey, I bought these with my own money,” Jaeduck protests as he takes the ornaments out of their plastic casings and moves forward to hang a pair on the branches of the trees, standing back to observe them before turning to Seungho proudly. “See? They already look better.”

 

Seungho looks at the ornaments. And then he squints at them. And then he looks at Jaeduck with an expression so scandalized anyone would think that Jaeduck committed a crime in front of him instead of hanging up a couple of ornaments.

 

“ _ No _ ,” Seungho says, making a strangled sound at the back of his throat, and proceeds to rip the ornaments away from the branches before arranging said branches to their original height. “No, my tree is already perfect.”

 

Jaeduck scowls, deciding to give up - for now - and hangs his mistletoe on the tree instead. It doesn’t mess with the branches, so Seungho remains quiet and lets him do his decorating. Up until he decides to try the ornaments again, at least, and Seungho’s practically on top of him before he can even touch the branches.

 

He finds it difficult to hold back the laughter that bubbles within him and escapes past his lips. “Why are you so in love with that tree?” he cries out between bouts of mirthful chuckles, “I’m going to get jealous soon knowing you like that tree more than you like me.”

 

Seungho freezes on the spot, a conflicted and confused expression flashing across his features, and Jaeduck has to choke back another giggle - is he seriously considering his preference between the Christmas tree and Jaeduck?

 

“Of course I like you more,” Seungho protests, “But the tree-”

 

_ Oh goodness, he really is obsessed with that tree. _

 

“It was a  _ joke _ , hyung,” Jaeduck snickers, and Seungho grumbles a little but visibly relaxes - and of course, being the stubborn person he is, Jaeduck takes the chance to reach out as quickly as possible to hang the ornaments on the tree.

 

“No,” Seungho complains as he reaches out to grab at Jaeduck’s arm, and in the next moment both of them are losing their balance and Jaeduck lets out a muffled yelp as he feels the two of them falling forward.

 

They end up on the ground in a mixture of groans and breathless laughter next to Seungho’s much-beloved tree, too lazy to get up or even move from their spots on the floor. “I was joking too, by the way,” Seungho pipes up after a comfortable silence stretches between them, “Of course I like you way more than a tree.”

 

“I would hope so, hyung,” Jaeduck remarks dryly with a chuckle.

 

They continue lying there, and for a moment Jaeduck wonders if they’re going to lie there the entire morning and afternoon until Seungho speaks again, “By the way, when did you put up the mistletoe?”

 

He deadpans. “Literally - you were literally watching me put it up a few minutes ago, hyung.”

 

“Oh.”

 

A pause, then Seungho tilts his head slightly towards Jaeduck. “So if we’re under the mistletoe, do we kiss?”

 

“It’s not Christmas yet, hyung,” Jaeduck responds with amusement colouring his tone as he turns, too, to meet Seungho’s gaze. 

 

“We’re terrible with sticking to plan anyway,” Seungho answers laughingly, sitting upright and shifting himself closer to Jaeduck. “Just so you don’t get jealous of my Christmas tree, you know?”

 

Jaeduck’s laughing aloud, the corners of his eyes crinkling a little, and feels Seungho’s lips tender and light against his skin - on his forehead, then at the corner of his lips, and then finally on his lips.

 

Decorating the house for Christmas is a lot more interesting than expected, Jaeduck reflects as he lies under the mistletoe next to Seungho, and perhaps they should do it more often.

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> some sort of odd mix between fluff and crack (ft. tony x christmas tree)... anyway hope you enjoyed & that you have a merry christmas!


End file.
